A Deadly Secret
by Estel Fir
Summary: This is a sad story about hatred and love.


They hadn't intended to fall into an irrefutable love when they first met. In fact, they had intended to kill one another. But they found a common enemy, a cave yeti hell-bent on killing both of them. The battle was fierce as they fought side-by-side—enemies just a breath apart fighting for survival. Their hatred for each other quelled as the din of combat subsided.

Still on her guard, the sin'dorei silently eyed the druid before her. He let the feral cat form diminish, restoring his true form. They stood still and silent for a long while, each wary of the other. The muscular kaldorei sighed in resignation and extended a hand to the rogue. Without breaking eye contact with him, she sheathed one of her slender, poison saturated swords and extended her hand in return. As they touched, a spark struck out between them—their hearts beat as one, speeding rapidly in synchronization. It was done.

For many months they continued to meet in secret to enjoy each other's company, each learning the opposite's native tongue. It was difficult at first but they each learned enough to carry on small conversations with the other. There was one phrase, though, that neither had to learn to understand it's meaning from the gentle kisses and the silent caresses. Each touch from one told the other _I love you_. Their differences weren't many, though they were enough to force them into hiding their affections.

A simple scarf around the rogue's neck was the signal as she wandered through Dalaran, waiting for a glimpse of him. Their eyes would meet and slowly they would make their way to the crystalline forest below the great city. They would greet each other warmly with tight embraces and tender kisses, then retreat together to sit and teach and learn—their bond growing stronger each passing day. It was only a matter of time before they joined together in a passionate loss of self-control and gave into their desires.

* * *

A small party of Night Elves out for an evening hunt was running through the forest of glowing trees, enjoying the failing light and fresh air. They came across a small clearing where the two lovers were consorting in secret. The leader of the group, a hunter by the name of Ytap, held up his hand for silence. He peered through the bushes and observed the female blood elf atop the male. Setting an arrow on his bow Ytap took aim for the jugular of the female. His shot was lost as the two rolled over, male atop the female. Ytap gasped as he beheld not a blood elf, but a night elf like himself.

"Beba," he growled under his breath. He knew this kaldorei. Beba had been raised in the same village as Ytap and they had once been friends—until Beba had chosen the way of the druid and Ytap the way of the hunter. He signaled for the party to move on, a plan brewing in his mind. Clearly Beba had been deceived and was under a spell. He would have to break the sin'dorei's hold over his night elf brother's mind.

* * *

She awoke with a splitting headache, the sun was hot upon her face. Her hands were bound above her head to the top of a pillar and her ankles bound at the base. Slowly, she remembered. She had been attacked from behind and knocked out. Eyes adjusting to the light, she beheld a party of four night elves crouched on the ground before her. Their eyes were wild with anger and evil thoughts as they glared up at the Sin'dorei. They had taken her to the lovers' secret spot. Their apparent leader stood, striding slowly over to her, knife in hand. Moving in close he held the blade to her cheek and spoke in his native tongue.

"What is your name?"

She hesitated and he pressed the tip of the knife into her skin, producing a small bead of blood.

"Kelana, my name is Kelana," she sputtered in hesitant Darnassian.

"Well then Kelana," he sniffed at her neck and she shied away from him, "you've crossed a line." He kept his words simple, assuming she must only know minimal Darnassian. "You want to be one of us?" Ytap struck her with the back of his hand, his emerald ring cutting into her cheek. "You will never be one of us." He spat on her.

Kelana turned away, sneering at the spittle running down her cheek. She said nothing.

"Perhaps," a female rogue chimed in from behind Ytap, "we can make her look more like an Ally." Giggling sadistically she unsheathed a dagger and coated it in a poison. She sauntered over to where Kelana was bound and raised her blade. "Would you like to join the Alliance?"

Kelana said nothing to the night elf as she whispered a silent prayer.

The rogue took Kelana's right ear in her hand and jerked it downward, a scream escaped the blood elf's lips. Smiling the rogue lifted her dagger and slowly began to cut the ear off to provide a rounded shape. She continued on the left ear—Kelana continued to scream in agony.

"There," proclaimed the female kaldorei as she stepped back to observe her handiwork. "Now you are a human!" All four night elves laughed as though it were a game.

They continued to abuse her using the rogue's daggers. They drew symbols on her chest and stomach, and small designs on her face. They used a sword brought forth by the warrior to rape her, destroying her insides so that she could never have a child. After hours of torture they grew bored and left her to die in the hot sun.

* * *

Hours passed as Beba wandered the streets of Dalaran seeking out the sin'dorei in the telltale scarf. He never saw her and decided to head to their clearing to see if she might be there. As he landed softly on the ground Beba spotted his love, limp and tied to a pillar. He assumed his true form and ran to her.

"Kelana!" he screamed as he worked furiously to remove the binds on her limbs. "Kelana wake up!"

There was a small fluttering of her eyelids and from her lips a slight whimper emitted. Beba wrapped his cloak around her then carried her swiftly to the portal under Dalaran that lead to the great city in the sky. He lifted her hand to touch the glowing purple triangle and she dissipated from his arms.

The city goers didn't see what had happened below. All they witnessed was a barely alive sin'dorei appear in the portal room and sway forward. She tumbled down the stairs onto the sidewalk below and lay prostrate on the cold stone ground. Beba came charging down the steps toward her, tossing Horde and Alliance both to the side. Reaching her he wrapped his arms around her waist, intending to find a healer of her faction. Angered by what seemed to them like an act of hostility, a mob of Horde members rushed to tackle Beba, throwing him angrily into a corner. A tauren shaman gently cradled Kelana in his massive arms and carried her to a hammock in the Filthy Animal where he began to mend her wounds.

The Kirin Tor peacekeepers rushed to break up the fight and free the damaged night elf from the mob. Beba stumbled back to the Silver Enclave to hide alone and heal his wounds.

* * *

Kelana only required three days to recuperate. She awoke swiftly, her wounds healed but her body still sore. She observed herself in a mirror, her beautiful blood elf ears had been cut down to bluntly rounded human-like ears. She felt she was no longer sin'dorei, but an abomination. Kelana's dear friend Lilanii found her, bearing good news.

"Kelana, they found the Kaldorei that disfigured you! There is going to be a lynching outside of Orgrimmar. Let's go watch them squirm!"

Kelana followed her friend, happy to get a chance to watch the night elves responsible suffer. The pair took the portal to Orgrimmar from Sunreaver's Sanctuary and mounted their steeds. Lilanii, a protection paladin, stayed close to her friend—keeping sharp watch for any who dared approach as they made their way through the front gates of the great orc city. They dismounted as they got to the large crowd which had gathered to eagerly watch justice be done. Lilanii pressed her way through the crowd pulling Kelana through by the elbow so they could have a better view.

Looking up at the gallows Kelana gasped to see her love, Beba, looking ghostly and forlorn with a noose around his neck. Shaking free of Lelanii's grasp she began to unceremoniously shove the spectators away as she rushed to reach the Kaldorei she loved with everything she was.

"Beba!" she yelled up to him. Their eyes met and a spark ignited. She _would_ reach him in time to stop the hanging.

An orc yelled out and the trap door was dropped. Before Beba's head was jerked upward by the noose he gave Kelana a loving smile, which she returned to him with every ounce of emotion she could muster. With a thud the flooring fell from below Beba's feet and he was left to dangle from the rope pulled tight around his thick neck.

Desperate, Kelana grabbed the mane of a nearby tauren and deftly clambered up onto his sturdy shoulders. She ran along the top of the gathered crowd as she pulled out a handful of shuriken and threw them fast as the speed of sound, one after the other, toward the rope around her love's neck. He fell through the trap door, hitting his head on the side and crumpling the ground with a thud.

The crowd drew silent as Kelana leapt from the shoulders of an orc, rolling to dampen her fall then slid along the dusty ground to the night elf's side. Hastily, she removed the rope as her eyes began to cloud with tears. She caressed his cheek and pulled his lifeless body to her. His neck had been snapped by the noose. Her rescuer had paid for the very crime he'd saved her from. Sobbing, she cried out for help. The kind shaman that had healed her injuries approached.

"Help him!" she screamed.

The shaman's eyes were sorrowful as he responded, "I cannot. He is an enemy and my magic cannot break through the hatred."

"He did not hate, therefore you are not bound. Can't you try?" She wept as she cradled Beba's corpse.

"I cannot," he replied. "He is dead, little elf. Thrall himself cannot mend the mortal wounds this kaldorei endured."

Screaming her pain to the sky, Kelana dragged the body from under the platform and whistled for her mount. A bulky kodo came barreling through the crowd and stopped in front of the small blood elf. Gently she lay Beba's body across the creature's shoulders and pulled herself into the saddle. With not a glance to any of the gathered observers, she set off east at a brisk pace.

* * *

For two days she rode east and north, until she came upon a small village along the coast inhabited by Kaldorai—Auberdine. They did not attack the kodo that rode slowly through the seaside town. They watched as the weeping and butchered Sin'dorei made her way to the docks.

Never saying a word, Kelana boarded a boat which took her across the sea to the island of Teldrassil. She led her kodo through the portal and into the great night elf city of Darnassus. Kaldorei followed her, curious and jeering as she made her way to High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind.

The high priestess welcomed her sorrowfully and accepted Beba's body, promising to return him to his family for a proper burial. Tyrande saw the pain in Kelana's eyes as she kissed the lifeless night elf tenderly on the lips in a final goodbye.

"I will tell my guards to leave you be, blood elf, but my protection can only go so far. Leave this place and never return. Go swiftly. My people will not appreciate you tarrying in the city for longer than you already have," the high priestess warned.

Kelana nodded a silent goodbye as she tore herself from Beba's side. Her heart was left behind with his body and she exited the chamber a hollow being.

The mob was waiting outside to jeer at her as she made her way to the entrance of Darnassus, growing ever antsy. Mind playing tricks on her eyes, she thought she saw a faded likeness of her love—perhaps his ghost. She stopped to peer in the direction it had been, but the image had faded.

Anger consuming caution, a druid of Beba's village leapt at Kelana, turning into apanther midair. She pounced on the sin'dorei, sinking her teeth and claws deep into the shoulder of the defenseless blood elf. Kelana felt nothing as every inhabitant of the city came at her with weapons drawn and began to maim her. Pieces of her body were chopped off, her left arm was torn straight off by two ferocious feral bears. All Kelana felt was a sweet release from her sorrow as she finally was beheaded by a warrior with two claymores.

By order of the high priestess the mob was dispersed and every piece of the dainty elf's body was placed in a box to be buried with the body of the night elf she had risked, and lost, her life to bring home.

* * *

To this day none of the Horde know what happened to Kelana. And none but Tyrande knows the exact location of the two elves' remains. All that is known is that Kelana and her lover Beba are resting together for all eternity. Enemies that had kept a deadly secret, would keep it forever.


End file.
